google cant seem to answer my pdf question

To try and organize my school work I started to scan my handwritten notes and handouts I get from my teachers that do not know how to upload them to blackboard (our schools online system for teachers to give us info). Now my own written notes have less then perfect handwriting but it is still readable.

I am using a old scanner that can only work with vuescan (it works perfectly its just old and win 7 x64 doesnt have a driver for it) and it outputs it as a pdf... but when I go and try to search text inside of it useing my pdf reader it does not recognize any text... is their a way i can convert my pdf (or jpg) I scan into a text based pdf while keeping the same formating so I can highlight and do otherthings inside my pdf reader... just for info I am useing foxit on windows and Repligo reader on my android tablet.

I do not mind paying for any software that will work 100% but I am on a undergrad college budget

 

I'm not entirely sure this is possible to an acceptable standard. I've read around that OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology is still a little iffy. However, you could still try. I haven't used any, so I'm just going by Google, this look's alright...
SimpleOCR - freeware OCR software and royalty free OCR engine!

 

Just tried that app and what could I say.... it was HORRIBLE... I tried to convert a simple handout that just had simple text on it and it got it completely wrong ...... it was massively confused like thinking march was marbple

 

That doesn't surprise me. Being free and all. You could try some paid OCR's. I just wouldn't know which one's are good.

 

Well, unfortunately, nobody has invented the mind-reading OCR code yet. I think you need to adjust your expectations a bit. Converting hand-written text to computer data is hard, and never perfect, even for good handwriting. In addition, you get what you pay for. There are commercial programs for this, but they're not free, and even those will not be perfect.

I think ABBYY Finereader 10 Pro is currently considered the best of the crop; typically costs about $400 or so.

 

You know, people pay other people to get handwritten stuff typed into computers. The tech for converting hard copy into soft hasn't gotten anywhere near perfect...

Sorry to say but the best would be if you just sit down and type in the parts you need.

 

Well I dont mind the handwritten text not working because what I really need is to scan and keep backups of the handouts we get and the ability to search for text in them... I just needed the handwritten for a particular class anyways due to the fact that the professor thinks with laptops one would browse facebook all day and not take notes...

I grabbed a demo of foxit Phantom to see if it could suit the bill.... turns out it does it perfectly along with keeping the original document intact!! It even works with a few of my handwritten notes (few not all but just the important ones i actually need ) ... at 130 its a little more then what I was expecting to pay for but it looks like I need to wait a week or to before I upgrade from the trial... but foxit Phantom is the cheapest one I have found that works!

edit:

Oo it even compresses them to save some space on my evernote account!

 

Smart guy; he's right, of course.

 

Could you ask the professor to email the source files out after the class they're used in? That would work around his argument and get you the electronic copy you want.

 

Have you tried uploading the pdf file to your google docs?

Google Adds OCR for PDF Files and Images

 

The professor is right, all I ever see notebooks being used for in class is Facebook, 99.8% of the time.

I prefer handwritten notes even though I have my notebook with me, helps me remember.

 

I did try it but it would slightly screw up the formating of the document and get a few words messed up BUT it was one of the better free ones out there... the only issue is that I have to export it as a different format when I was done since it saves it to google docs

I did ask him this after the 2nd day of class but what he has are a bunch of pdfs on a disk in the library of his presentations and handouts and they are just jpgs in a pdf format... he is not very computer literate so Im thinking he just had someone scan or make them for him

 

Ok, I haven't gone all the way to read these replies.

Have you thought about using XP Mode virtual machine in your Windows 7? I have a Nikon 35mm film scanner and Nikon has dropped driver support for all of their scanners running on Win7. I could pay for programs that don't know how to fully utilize the features that make it an expensive scanner. Or... I got into XP Mode, installed the scanning software, attached the scanner via USB and everything is fine.

After installing the Windows Virtual Machine, there's another update to allow integration features. This will make it so that you can scan from inside the VM, but save to the physical HDD rather than the virtual drive. When my scanner is plugged in, Win 7 says the drivers don't work. Once I click to attach it in the VM, it disconnects from Win7 and is then connected in the VM no prob.